RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)

  • Kenyans March to Mark Anniversary of Deadly 2024 Anti-Government Protests

    Source: US News & World Report

    “Dozens of ⁠Kenyans ⁠took to the streets on Thursday ⁠under heavy security in memory of protesters killed two years ago when massive ​anti-government demonstrations erupted in Nairobi over proposed tax hikes and the surging cost of living. Organisers had planned remembrance marches in ‌the coastal city of Mombasa and ‌the capital Nairobi to mark the anniversary of the June 25, 2024 unrest, when protests escalated dramatically and protesters ⁠breached parliament ⁠grounds before a security crackdown left dozens dead. … Dozens of marchers turned up in Mombasa escorted by security forces ⁠while ⁠Nairobi’s streets appeared largely deserted ⁠as police set ​up roadblocks with water cannons and mounted a razor wire barricade outside parliament.” (06/25/26)

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-25/kenyans-march-to-mark-anniversary-of-deadly-2024-anti-government-protests

  • Cambodia: Supreme Court upholds treason convictions of two journalists held political prisoner

    Source: ABC News

    “Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the treason conviction and 14-year prison sentence of two journalists who posted photographs on Facebook last year related to border clashes with Thailand, prompting new accusations from rights groups that Prime Minister Hun Manet ‘s government is influencing the courts to quash press freedoms. … ‘The bogus prosecution and draconian prison sentences handed down to these two journalists shows the Cambodian authorities’ disdain for media freedom,’ Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press.” (06/24/26)

    https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/cambodias-supreme-court-rule-treason-appeal-2-journalists-134192048

  • Steiner: US Snail will violate 18 US Code § 1702 to help Trump rig midterms

    Source: Politico

    “The U.S.’[s] chief mailman told lawmakers Wednesday that his agency would restrict the delivery of mail-in ballots in states that don’t hand over a list of eligible voters, in line with proposed rules ordered by President Donald Trump. Postmaster General David Steiner dismissed Senate Democrats’ concerns that the floated regulations are an attempt by Trump to federalize elections, instead characterizing the proposal as an assurance that ‘the right ballots are going to the right people’ during an appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.” [editor’s note: Per 18 US Code § 1702, “Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package … before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.” – TLK] (06/24/26)

    https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/24/usps-mail-in-voting-state-voter-rolls-00974142

  • Venezuela: At least 32 dead, 700 injured after massive earthquakes

    Source: USA Today

    “Massive, twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 killed at least 32 people and injured at least 700 others as buildings collapsed across several states in the South American nation, officials said. In an early update on June 25, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez warned that the death toll is expected to climb as rescuers continue searching through the rubble. … The first quake occurred at around 6:04 p.m. local time about 15 miles east-northeast of San Felipe, Venezuela, data from the U.S. Geological Survey showed. The temblor, initially reported as a magnitude 7.1, had a depth of about 12.6 miles, and its epicenter was west of Morón, a town located on the country’s Caribbean coast. Less than a minute later, the USGS reported a second major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5.” (06/25/26)

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/06/24/venezuela-earthquake-tsunami-threats/90684878007/

  • Sanctioned ICC judges sue Trump

    Source: Courthouse News Service

    “Frozen bank accounts, canceled credit cards and blocked travel led three International Criminal Court judges to sue the Trump administration Wednesday, arguing they were punished simply for the cases they decided. In the 66-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the trio asks a judge to strike down President Donald Trump’s sanctions order, remove Judges Kimberly Prost, Solomy Bossa and Reine Alapini-Gansou from the U.S. sanctions list, unblock any frozen property and bar the government from enforcing the measures against them. … Trump signed Executive Order 14203 on Feb. 6, 2025, after the ICC pursued investigations involving U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza. The order declared a national emergency and authorized sanctions against foreign nationals involved in ICC investigations or prosecutions targeting U.S. citizens or nationals of allied countries that do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.” (06/24/26)

    https://courthousenews.com/sanctioned-icc-judges-sue-trump-in-new-york/


  • Bureaucratic Information Gathering

    Source: EconLog
    by Jon Murphy

    “We rely on experts for a lot of our information. By ‘expert,’ I mean someone who is paid for their opinion. Roger Koppl uses this definition in his 2018 book Expert Failure, and I use the same definition in my research, which is based on his book. This definition is useful because it allows us to sidestep the endless (and, frankly, arbitrary) discussion about who counts as an expert. … When we deal directly with an expert (our doctor, our mechanic, our meteorologist), we can get the information firsthand. But in a large organization, there are often several layers of communication between the expert (the one producing the opinion) and the non-expert using the opinion.” (06/25/26)

    https://www.econlib.org/econlog/bureaucratic-information-gathering

  • Congress Is Preparing To Surrender American Sovereignty on the Eve of America’s 250th Anniversary

    Source: Antiwar.com
    by Dennis Kucinich & Elizabeth Kucinich

    “The United States Congress, on the very eve of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, is preparing to formally diminish American independence and sovereignty through a proposed merger and long-term integration of executive functions throughout the government, coordinated by the Department of Defense. Treacherous provisions in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mandate that the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commerce Department, and the heads of other relevant Federal departments and agencies cooperate with their Israeli counterparts for the purpose of consolidating U.S. and Israeli military activities in order to align efforts and avoid duplication.” (06/25/26)

    https://original.antiwar.com/kucinich/2026/06/24/congress-is-preparing-to-surrender-american-sovereignty-on-the-eve-of-americas-250th-anniversary/

  • Why The ROAD To Housing Act Will Not Lower Your Housing Costs

    Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
    by Karl Dickey

    “The new federal ROAD to Housing Act focuses on relief for community banks, changes to manufactured housing rules, and updates to existing federal programs. It limits large investors from buying single-family homes. The bill authorizes no new funds in most of its sections. Proponents say the country faces a severe housing shortage. As usual, the federal government is behind the curve. But the ROAD Housing Act is a mixed bag, like most laws. The positive: loosens some regulations. The negative: it will restrict supply (opposite of its intent).” (06/25/26)

    https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/why-the-road-to-housing-act-will

  • When did Western statecraft lose its fear of the unknown?

    Source: Responsible Statecraft
    by Matthew Blackburn

    “Prudence has been replaced by confidence that conflict can be precisely managed. Nowhere is that more evident than in the European approach to Russia.” (06/25/26)

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-europe-war/

  • Reflections on Character as Destiny

    Source: The Dispatch
    by Kevin D Williamson

    “Half the problem with Trumpism is Trumpism. And the other half of the problem with Trumpism is Trump. Trump will always betray those who trust him. And he will always force his underlings to go out in public and defend indefensibly stupid things. Ask Larry Kudlow or Kevin Hassett. And, contra National Review’s social-media intern, Trump will reliably make everything he gets his hands on ugly: His Caligula-by-way-of-Liberace aesthetic is not only—or even mainly—the result of bad taste but the result of bad character. There is a reason vanity is numbered among the seven deadly sins. To assume that the reflecting pool work would be done incompetently and corruptly is far from absurd. If you happen to be among those who believe that character is destiny, then it is, at the very least, a reasonable assumption even if it is something short of an existential certainty.” (06/25/26)

    https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-reflecting-pool-vandalism-claims/

  • Singapore’s Challenge to Classical Liberals

    Source: Independent Institute
    by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

    “After spending time in Singapore, I am more convinced than ever that what has given this island the world’s second– or third-highest per capita gross domestic product (in purchasing power parity) is not its ‘state-managed,’ ‘politically engineered’ socioeconomic model nor its authoritarian politics, but its economic freedom. However, its social cohesion, multi-ethnic peace, and well-being, which are significantly linked to government interventionism, continue to challenge us classical liberals, who would like freedom to be the founding principle not just of prosperity but also of other desirable social outcomes.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/24/singapores-challenge-to-classical-liberals/

  • Technology – overcoming challenges

    Source: The Price of Liberty
    by Nathan Barton

    “Today, too many people think of ‘technology’ as having only to do with information technology. Others (rightly) speak of the evils of ‘technocracy’ as a form of increased government control by a self-chosen elite. But there is much more, and technology offers solutions to many problems we face today. Just as it has in the past. However, it is also just as dangerous and wrong to think that every problem can be solved with technology or that any problem can be solved only with application of technology.” (06/24/26)

    https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/06/24/technology-overcoming-challenges/

  • Do I Look like a “Radical Left Lunatic” Vandal?

    Source: JimBovard.com
    by James Bovard

    “I blundered on Saturday by failing to check the latest updated terrorist profile before visiting Washington, DC. How was I to know that National Guard troops would be on the lookout for 60ish bicyclists who are too damn curious about algae? I went riding around downtown Washington to check the latest Trump administration efforts to make Washington ‘safe and beautiful’ for the 250th birthday celebration next month. … I wanted to see the Reflecting Pool that President Trump boasted was twice as long as the Empire State building—except that the pool is flat. Arriving at the Pool, I was stunned to discover that that waterway was almost as heavily militarized as the Strait of Hormuz. National Guard troops swarmed the scene. The heavy troop presence reminded me of what I saw on the streets of East Berlin in 1986.” (06/24/26)

    https://jimbovard.com/blog/2026/06/24/do-i-look-like-a-radical-left-lunatic-vandal/

  • The Easy Originalist Case for Birthright Citizenship

    Source: Checks & Balances
    by Evan Bernick

    “Most constitutional questions that reach the Supreme Court are difficult. But there’s an exception to every rule. The birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara is an easy one—especially if one cares about the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for the children of temporary visitors and unlawful entrants defies the original public meaning and function of the Citizenship Clause – its letter and spirit. A decision to uphold it would discredit originalism, which has always been advertised as a distinctively powerful means of keeping judges faithful to the law of the land.” (06/24/26)

    https://chkbal.substack.com/p/the-easy-originalist-case-for-birthright

  • Empire at 250: Can the Principles of 1776 Survive the American Police State?

    Source: Rutherford Institute
    by John & Nisha Whitehead

    “This is a year of strange anniversaries. Two hundred and fifty years ago, a band of revolutionaries declared their independence from a king. America’s founders rejected concentrated power. They denounced standing armies. They distrusted government secrecy. They risked their lives to escape a ruler who could tax without consent, wage war without accountability, and govern without meaningful restraint. Twenty-five years ago, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, America embarked on a very different journey. The federal government claimed extraordinary emergency powers. Surveillance expanded. Wars multiplied. Executive authority grew. Constitutional safeguards were weakened in the name of security. One anniversary marked a revolt against empire. The other marked the normalization of it.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/empire_at_250_can_the_principles_of_1776_survive_the_american_police_state

  • Albania’s Flamingo Revolution: A Fight for Property, Liberty, and the Right to Stay

    Source: Liberty International
    by Kozeta Çuadari Çika

    “Albania is experiencing its most significant civic mobilisation since the fall of communism, fuelled by the massive anti-government demonstrations known as the ‘Flamingo Revolution.’ What began as a localised environmental protest against a multi-billion-dollar luxury resort development has escalated into a nationwide revolt. Hundreds of thousands of citizens of all ages are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his administration. The initial catalyst for the unrest was a development project valued at between $4.6 billion and $5.7 billion, backed by Affinity Partners — an investment firm led by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The project targets the pristine, uninhabited Sazan Island and the environmentally sensitive Vjosa-Narta protected coastal zone near the village of Zvërnec. First of all, major transparency concerns have arisen over how coastal land titles were transferred to private entities.” (06/24/26)

    https://liberty-intl.org/2026/06/24/albanias-flamingo-revolution-a-fight-for-property-liberty-and-the-right-to-stay/

  • Rich people are not a problem

    Source: Eastern New Mexico News
    by Kent McManigal

    “No one gets to decide what others need. As long as they aren’t stealing it, it’s none of your business. If someone earns a quadrillion dollars by giving customers what they want and by filling a niche, they aren’t a problem. It’s a positive thing for society, and only ignorant people get upset over it. It’s trendy to hate rich people. It’s also incredibly stupid. Most of the people upset over ‘excessive’ wealth — such as the tax-addicted politicians and their followers — contribute nothing. Takers envy makers. For a millionaire politician to demand that a billionaire entrepreneur hand over some percentage of his money is dishonest. The entrepreneur contributes; the politician is a parasite who only takes.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2026/06/24/voices/opinion-rich-people-are-not-a-problem/233710.html